UK to Launch Homegrown Mini-Satellite Cube

The UK Space
Agency has announced it will develop and launch a miniature satellite to be used
for inexpensive science missions in low-Earth orbit.

Shaped like
a cube and potentially smaller than a home computer, this type of satellite allows
scientists to research cutting-edge space technology quickly and at relatively low
cost, UK Space Agency chief executive David Williams said.

The UK model
will be one of a series of spacecraft called Cubesats, which are simple, tiny and
inexpensive. These features make CubeSats capable of deploying on speedy
timescales that accommodate numerous missions, agency officials said.

"Britain?s
first CubeSat will bring major benefits to the UK space industry," said
David Willetts, the UK's minister of state for universities and science. "Firms
will now have a cheap and quick way to test their latest prototypes."

For the UK's
model, named UKube 1, the agency will select the most innovative ideas for a payload
from a competition open to teams from academia and private industry. The
winning proposal will launch in 2011 in a CubeSet designed and manufactured by
the Glasgow, Scotland-based company Clyde Space Ltd.

Eventually,
the CubeSat will grant engineers an arena to test new technologies before space
agencies incorporate them into risky missions.???

"As
with all space related business, the best way to market space products is
through their successful demonstration in orbit," said Clyde Space CEO
Craig Clark.

Previous
CubeSat missions include a NASA study that sent bacteria inside a miniature lab to investigate how spaceflight
affects the human body. The NASA Firefly project, another CubeSat venture, is
examining the relationship between lightning and gamma-ray radiation flashes in
the Earth's upper atmosphere.

Particularly
well-suited to low orbit missions, the CubeSat has special potential for
research into space weather, spacecraft damage, atmospheric
science, and high energy particle radiation, UK Space Agency officials said.
And because satellites that orbit low revolve faster around the planet, these
missions could be helpful for advanced disaster warnings for tsunamis, bush-fires
and other emergencies, as well as to create real-time maps of the Earth.

The UK's
Space Agency also hopes the CubeSat mission can help inspire students.

"[CubeSats]
can easily be taken to schools and students can be engaged before and after
launch, including anything from mission ideas, hands on development, operations
and data analysis," said UK Space Agency head of education Jeremy Curtis.
"They are a great way to attract and train a future generation of
engineers."